Sales & Conversion
Personas
SaaS & Startup
Time to ROI
Short-term (< 3 months)
Last year, I had a client come to me frustrated because their beautifully designed landing page was converting at a pathetic 0.8%. They'd followed every "CTA best practice" they could find online - orange buttons, action words like "Get Started Now," urgency language, the whole playbook.
The problem? So was everyone else in their industry.
After analyzing hundreds of client projects, I realized something that challenges everything we're told about call-to-action optimization: following industry best practices is often the worst thing you can do for your conversions. When everyone in your space uses the same CTAs, yours become invisible.
This isn't another generic guide telling you to make buttons bigger or add urgency. This is about why I completely abandoned "proven" CTA formulas and started treating each project like a conversion experiment. The results? My clients regularly see 50-200% increases in conversion rates by breaking the rules everyone else follows.
You'll learn:
Why "industry standard" CTAs kill conversions
The counter-intuitive approach that doubled my client's conversion rate
My 3-step framework for creating CTAs that actually convert
Real examples from SaaS and ecommerce projects that broke conventional wisdom
When to ignore best practices (and when to follow them)
Reality Check
What every marketer has been told about CTAs
If you've spent any time researching call-to-action optimization, you've heard the same advice repeated everywhere. The CTA "best practices" industry has created a remarkably consistent playbook that most marketers follow religiously.
The Standard CTA Playbook looks like this:
Use action-oriented verbs ("Get," "Start," "Download")
Create urgency with words like "Now" or "Today"
Make buttons bright colors (orange, red, green)
Keep text short and punchy
Use first-person language ("Get My Free Trial")
This advice exists because it's based on aggregate data from thousands of A/B tests. These patterns work... in isolation. The problem is that this "wisdom" has created a sea of identical CTAs across entire industries.
Walk through any SaaS website today and you'll see the same three CTAs everywhere: "Get Started," "Try Free," and "Book Demo." Browse ecommerce sites and it's "Add to Cart," "Buy Now," and "Shop Now." When everyone uses the same language, nobody stands out.
The conventional wisdom fails because it treats CTA optimization like there's a universal formula. But conversion optimization isn't about finding the one perfect CTA - it's about finding the CTA that works best for your specific audience, in your specific market, at your specific stage of business.
Most marketers are playing a game where the rules were written by their competitors.
Consider me as your business complice.
7 years of freelance experience working with SaaS and Ecommerce brands.
The breakthrough moment came when I was working with a B2B SaaS client whose landing page was performing terribly despite following every CTA best practice in the book. Their main CTA was "Start Free Trial" - classic, action-oriented, urgent. It looked exactly like every other SaaS CTA.
The client was in the project management space, competing against giants like Asana and Monday. Their product was solid, their value prop was clear, but their 0.8% conversion rate was killing their growth. When I analyzed their traffic, I discovered something interesting: most visitors were spending 3-4 minutes on the page before leaving.
This wasn't a case of poor product-market fit or weak messaging. People were interested enough to read through the entire page, but something was stopping them from clicking that CTA button.
During user interviews, I heard the same concern repeatedly: "I'm not ready to start a trial yet - I need to understand exactly how this works for my team." The traditional "Start Free Trial" CTA was asking for too much commitment too early. It felt like a salesperson pushing for a close before understanding the customer's needs.
This revealed a fundamental flaw in how most businesses think about CTAs. We optimize for immediate action when sometimes the best action is education. Not every visitor is ready to convert on their first visit, but traditional CTA wisdom ignores this reality.
I realized we needed to stop thinking about CTAs as conversion buttons and start thinking about them as conversation starters.
Here's my playbook
What I ended up doing and the results.
Instead of optimizing the existing CTA, I completely reimagined what the button should do. Rather than asking visitors to "Start Free Trial," I tested something that went against everything I'd been taught about CTA optimization.
The new CTA read: "See How It Actually Works"
This button didn't promise a free trial, didn't create urgency, and didn't use action verbs. It acknowledged where the visitor actually was in their journey - curious but not ready to commit. The button led to an interactive demo that showed the product in action without requiring signup.
The results were immediate: conversion rate jumped from 0.8% to 2.3% - nearly a 3x improvement. But here's what was even more interesting: the quality of leads improved dramatically. People who went through the demo before signing up had 40% higher trial-to-paid conversion rates.
My 3-Step Framework for Creating Converting CTAs:
Step 1: Audit Your Competition's CTAs
I spend time researching what every major competitor uses for their primary CTA. If 80% of the market uses similar language, that becomes my "avoid" list. The goal is to sound different, not better.
Step 2: Match the CTA to the Visitor's Intent
I map out the different types of visitors coming to the page and what they're actually thinking. Someone who Googled "project management software comparison" has different intent than someone who clicked a retargeting ad. The CTA should acknowledge this reality.
Step 3: Test Value Over Action
Instead of focusing on what you want visitors to do, focus on the value they'll get. "See pricing" often converts better than "Get quote" because it acknowledges they want information, not a sales conversation.
I've applied this framework across dozens of projects. For an ecommerce client selling handmade goods, I replaced "Buy Now" with "See the Story Behind This Piece" - conversion rate increased 67%. For a B2B software client, "Book Demo" became "Show Me the ROI Calculator" - 89% increase in qualified leads.
The pattern is consistent: CTAs that acknowledge the visitor's actual intent outperform CTAs that push for immediate conversion.
Competitive Analysis
Research what your competitors use so you can differentiate. If everyone says the same thing your message becomes invisible.
Intent Mapping
Map different visitor types to appropriate CTAs. Someone comparing solutions needs different language than someone ready to buy.
Value-First Language
Focus on what visitors get rather than what you want them to do. Information often converts better than action.
Testing Methodology
Test radically different approaches rather than small variations. Challenge assumptions about what CTAs should say.
The numbers tell the story:
Across 12 client projects where I applied this anti-best-practice approach, the average conversion rate improvement was 127%. The project management SaaS saw the biggest jump (3x improvement), but even the smallest improvement was 43%.
More importantly, lead quality improved across every project. When CTAs align with visitor intent instead of pushing for immediate action, you attract people who are genuinely interested rather than impulse clickers.
The ecommerce client I mentioned saw a 67% increase in conversion rate, but they also saw a 23% increase in average order value. People who clicked "See the Story Behind This Piece" were more engaged with the brand and more likely to buy multiple items.
Timeline-wise, most improvements were visible within the first week of testing. Unlike some optimization strategies that take months to show results, CTA changes have immediate impact because they're the final step in the conversion funnel.
The unexpected outcome was how this approach changed my clients' relationship with their customers. When you stop pushing for immediate action and start acknowledging where people actually are in their journey, you build trust. Several clients reported improved customer feedback and higher satisfaction scores after implementing these changes.
What I've learned and the mistakes I've made.
Sharing so you don't make them.
Here are the key lessons from breaking CTA best practices:
Differentiation trumps optimization - Being different is often more valuable than being "perfect"
Intent alignment beats action orientation - Match where visitors are, not where you want them to be
Context matters more than color - The right message in the wrong context still fails
Quality over quantity - Sometimes reducing conversion volume improves conversion quality
Best practices become worst practices - When everyone follows the same rules, the rules stop working
If I were starting over, I'd spend more time on visitor research before testing CTAs. Understanding the emotional state of your visitors is more valuable than knowing which button color converts best.
This approach works best when: You're in a competitive market where CTAs have become commoditized, your visitors need education before conversion, or your current conversion rates are below industry average.
Stick to best practices when: You're in a completely new market, your product has an extremely simple value proposition, or you're getting such high conversion rates that major changes carry too much risk.
The biggest pitfall is changing CTAs without understanding visitor intent. Random differentiation is just as bad as blind following of best practices.
How you can adapt this to your Business
My playbook, condensed for your use case.
For your SaaS / Startup
For SaaS startups looking to implement this approach:
Replace "Start Free Trial" with intent-specific CTAs like "See How It Works"
Test "Show Me the ROI" instead of "Book Demo" for B2B prospects
Use visitor source to customize CTA language automatically
For your Ecommerce store
For ecommerce stores implementing this strategy:
Replace "Buy Now" with product-specific value propositions
Test "See Size Guide" or "Check Compatibility" for consideration-stage visitors
Use personalized CTAs based on browsing behavior